Introduction
This page includes resources for finding popular and scholarly articles about world music. We've included some suggested music databases below as well as recommendations of specific publications to check out. If you need a refresher on how to find articles through an academic database, check out our library guide.
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Finding Journal Articles for Music ResearchThis guide is an introduction (or a refresher) to searching for, accessing, and evaluating articles for music research.
Suggested Databases
Although there isn't a specific database that deals exclusively with world music journals, we have several database recommendations for you that index world music material.
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JSTOR This link opens in a new windowProvides page images of back issues of the core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and basic sciences from the earliest issues to within a few years of current publication. Users may browse by journal title or discipline, or may search the full-text or citations/abstracts. New issues of existing titles and new titles are added approximately on a weekly basis. The University of Illinois has access to the following JSTOR collections: Arts & Sciences I-XV, 19th Century British Pamphlets, Business IV, Global Plants, Hebrew Journals, Ireland, Life Sciences Collection, Lives of Literature, Security Studies, Struggles for Freedom - South Africa, Sustainability, and World Heritage Sites - Africa.
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Music Index This link opens in a new window
Alternate version: Music Index in the classic EBSCO user interface (best for exporting more than 50 results or combining saved searches). Contains cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for every aspect of the classical and popular world of music including musicological and organological topics, as well as book reviews, record reviews, first performances, and obituaries from more than 850 music periodicals from over 40 countries.
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Music Periodicals Database This link opens in a new windowA database with full-text and abstracts of articles on music. Includes indexing for music articles and obituaries from the New York Times and The Washington Post. Covers nearly all aspects of music, including scholarly studies and popular trends. Coverage: 1874 - present.
Recommended Journals
There are few journals that deal specifically with ethnomusicology, but many that might be helpful for particular topics of research. This list is only of journals dealing specifically with ethnomusicology. You can find others by searching the catalog or browsing either at MPAL or at the area studies library most closely related to your research.
If you are looking for a particular journal, you can search for it using the Journal and Article Locator.
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EthnomusicologyCall Number: 784.405 ET & OnlineThis is the primary journal for ethnomusicology, put out by the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM).
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British Journal of EthnomusicologyCall Number: ML3797.6 B74 (Oak Street Library) & OnlineYou can access some issues online through JSTOR.
For later issues, note that the journal changed name to British Forum for Ethnomusicology Newsletter and, later, Ethnomusicology Forum. -
British Forum for Ethnomusicology NewsletterCall Number: ML3544 N48Earlier issues called British Journal of Ethnomusicology and later issues called Ethnomusicology Forum.
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Ethnomusicology ForumCall Number: ML3797.6 B741 (Oak Street Library) & OnlinePartially available online in Informaworld and EBSCO.
Earlier issues called British Journal of Ethnomusicology and British Forum for Ethnomusicology. -
The World of MusicCall Number: 780.5 WO & OnlineThis was originally the journal of the International Music Council, then the International Institute for Traditional Music and currently the Department of Ethnomusicology, Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg.